


keeping up with kim jaehwan

by chanyeonot



Category: JBJ (Band), NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Everyone shows up eventually, Friends to Lovers, I'll add tags as I update, M/M, idk why these tags are capitalizing themselves :), lots of side couples (all but minhwan basically), mostly university au, please bear with me, this is bouta be wild, this is gonna be a slow build, youtube vlogger!jaehwan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-02-04 20:37:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12779034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanyeonot/pseuds/chanyeonot
Summary: jaehwan is a popular vlogger on youtube, minhyun is his viewers' favorite guest star, and eventually everything falls into placeor: jaehwan & minhyun have been best friends since childhood and jaehwan just films shit and calls his vlog series "keeping up with kim jaehwan"





	1. 2013-2014

**Author's Note:**

> this is very jaehwan-centric but i promise everyone shows up eventually. also jaehwan deserves all the Love and Appreciation in the world, so.
> 
> since these are vlogs, chapter titles will be the time period for the vlogs included in the chapter.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the beginning of jaehwan's vlogging career

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so,, it's been a month since i posted my last (first) minhwan fic. this one has been in the works since then basically and i'm trying my luck with a chaptered fic! it's still not anywhere near finished, so please bear with me as far as updating goes. this idea popped into my head when i was petting my neighbor's dog (spoiler for a later chapter??) so yeah, hopefully this won't be too disappointing. and hopefully it won't be too confusing,, i've never written in this format before.
> 
> also this definitely JUST the first chapter, there will be many more to come and some will be longer than others, but. yeah!

december 15, 2013 - my first vlog!? - 2 subscribers

Jaehwan bit his lip as he tried to balance his phone on the top of his dresser. He stacked some books up behind it so it would stay upright, but the angle was awkward because the dresser was shorter than the upper half of his body. He hummed to himself as he glanced around his room for a solution, his eyes passing over the chemistry homework lying on his desk and finally landing on the chair next to the desk.

“Aha!” he exclaimed, rolling the chair in front of his phone’s camera. He plopped himself into the seat and looked at his reflection in his phone screen. His head barely made it into the frame, the weird puff of his hair taking up most of the space, but it was better than leaning down awkwardly so he shrugged and reached out to press record.

“Hello… whoever is watching this!” he began, waving at the camera. “My name is Jaehwan and instead of doing my homework, I’m making this vlog!” He waved again. “So. Yeah. Um, a little bit about myself! I’m seventeen, I’m in high school, I live in Seoul, South Korea, and I really like cats. Someday I want to have a cat, but I can’t at the moment because my mom’s allergic. For now I just go over to my friend’s house and pet his cats because he’s got three and they’re all really cute.”

Jaehwan hummed and glanced around, unsure of what to do next. The brilliant idea of filming a vlog popped into his head when he was staring at his chemistry worksheet and actively trying to think of a way to avoid doing it. And as odd and random as the idea of vlogging was, he’d run with it―because even recording himself talking about nothing was better than even attempting to be academically productive.

Unfortunately that idea was as far as he’d gotten―he’d done no planning for what he was going to say or anything he was going to do. But spontaneity had always been his thing, so he stood up, took his phone off his dresser, and held it so his face was still in the frame. “Here,” he said. “I’ll take you guys on a tour of my room. It’s pretty small but I never clean anything up so I’m sure we’ll find some good stuff. Uh… let me change the camera direction…” Jaehwan fumbled with his phone as he tried to figure out how to switch to the front camera. The current angle of his face was frighteningly unflattering, but he didn’t really care.

“Ah, there we go! So, here’s the dresser the phone was just on, and here’s what’s in the top drawer―it’s just my socks, they’re pretty cool though. I think I’ve lost one in every pair so they’re all mismatching. That way they’re all individual, you know? All unique. Kind of like me, I feel like a crazy sock without an identical matching one.”

He moved on to his bed, gesturing at it grandly. “This is my bed! If you can’t see my blankets, that’s because I can’t either! I really should put away all those clothes…” He pointed the camera at the mirror on his wall. “Hello! That’s me!” He waved at his reflection. “And this… is my closet. Uh, I don’t know if we should go in there―nah, let’s do it. I think I lost one of my Pokemon plushies and it might be in there.”

His tiny Clefairy plushie did end up being in his closet, along with six pairs of baby shoes he didn’t remember he had and a photo album of his family’s trip to Busan when he was eight years old. “Oh my god, look how tiny I was!” he cackled while trying to keep the phone steady enough to focus on a picture of Little Jaehwan flexing his little muscles in front of a statue that was three times his height. “I look like a gnome!”

He also found his mom’s sewing kit (“Oh  _that’s_ where it’s been!”), a sock he thought he’d lost (“Well now I’m gonna have to lose it again so I’ll still only have one”), a stack of children’s books (“I can still recite this one from memory”), and a small box of his baby teeth (“Oh my god what the fuck!”) tucked in various corners of his closet. Twenty minutes later he finished filming everything in his closet and decided he’d done enough digging around for one day. Even thinking about cleaning exhausted him, but it was definitely more fun while recording all the weird shit he found.

“Well, this has been exciting,” he said into the camera. “This was my first vlog! Which I filmed mostly because I didn’t want to do my homework! I hope you enjoyed looking into my weird ass life, who knows I might do another vlog soon. I’m not sure. Bye, Jaehwan out!”

He fumbled with the phone for a moment before he pressed the end button. He opened the video in his photos― “Whoa, twenty five minutes long!” he cheered to himself. In order to keep procrastinating, he watched the whole video and spent every other second laughing at himself. Then he locked his phone and fell into his desk chair with a thud. He rolled it over to his desk and stared down miserably at his not even half-finished chemistry homework. So… he could do his work, or he could… upload the video to YouTube! Yes, that’s what he would do. The next thirty minutes were spent relocating the video file, titling it something edgy ( _my first vlog!?_ ) and waiting it for upload to YouTube. He then posted it and sat there refreshing the page to see if views would pop up.

None did, but he sat there for the next hour anyway before he fell asleep with his finger on the touchpad.

 

―

 

june 15, 2014 - my first acts as a free man - 2,389 subscribers

“Hello everyone!” Jaehwan said, holding his phone up so the angle made his face look less flat. “It’s been a while since I’ve filmed anything, but the response on my first vlog was crazy? Hello new subscribers! I was so weird seven months ago―”

“You’re still weird,” a distracted voice came from out of the screen, and Jaehwan glared at the source of it before continuing.

“But now I’m a high school graduate! That’s right, I graduated! I’m not entirely sure how, but it probably has a lot to do with Hwang Minhyun, whose notes I religiously copied. Minhyun―Minhyun, get in here.” He tilted the screen so the camera could catch the boy beside him. Said boy waved at Jaehwan’s phone in a short gesture then returned to messing with his own phone.

“Well, Minhyun’s no fun but he  _is_ the reason I’m here with you today and not dead in a ditch. Anyway, I was thinking―since I’m now a free man, I should do something fun! Right? That makes sense? So Minhyun, my dear best friend of eleven years, came along with me―”

“You dragged me out here, don’t lie.”

“―and we’re now sitting on a bench outside an ice cream shop. Because my first act as a free man will be to buy myself a triple-scoop cone of ice cream!”

“With  _my_ money.”

Jaehwan finally turned to look at his best friend. “Stop ruining this video, Minhyun. This will be fun if you stop being a stick in the mud.”

“Sure, sure, sorry.”

Good grief. He’d kindly offered to feature his best friend in his next vlog, and  _this_ was the kind of disrespect he got? How unbelievable. He stood up and tried to keep his phone steady. “So, we’re going to go buy that. You want something too, ri―Minhyun, come on. Are you playing that piano game again?” He bent his arm around so the camera showed Minhyun, who was still sitting on the bench, eyes and fingers focused on the screen of his own phone. “Min _hyun_.”

“Hold on… hold on… Aha!” Minhyun turned his phone so it faced Jaehwan’s camera. “I just beat my high score. And yours, if I remember your score correctly.”

“Fuck off,” Jaehwan said as he quickly whipped his phone camera back to his own face. “You probably don’t remember it correctly. Give me your money, it’s really hot and I want ice cream.”

Inside the shop, Jaehwan tried to keep his phone at a discreet angle so he didn’t look like a self-absorbed teenager filming himself in the middle of a restaurant. “Are you gonna get vanilla ice cream?” he asked Minhyun.

“Yeah,” the older boy replied.

Jaehwan sighed. “So boring.”

“Hey!” Minhyun clutched his money a little tighter to his chest. “I get sprinkles on it!”

Jaehwan gave his phone camera the most unimpressed look he could muster, which was a look he’d perfected because he was constantly disappointed by all his friends. “You hear this?” he said into his phone. “He gets  _sprinkles_ on his  _vanilla_ ice cream, so he’s _not_ lame!”

“I’m not lame,” Minhyun protested.

Jaehwan laughed. “Sure. Go order your vanilla ice cream with sprinkles, dumbass.”

The older boy walked up to the counter, passing Jaehwan while muttering something sounding suspiciously like “You’re lucky I’m paying for your broke ass” under his breath. Jaehwan recorded him ordering his lame single-scoop vanilla cone with sprinkles, laughing under his breath as the lady prepared it for him. When Minhyun finished, he looked back and gestured for Jaehwan to place his order. The younger boy cleared his throat and smiled at the cashier, who raised an eyebrow boredly. “Can I get a triple-scoop chocolate cone, one scoop mint chocolate chip, one oreo, and one cookie dough? And could I get M&M’s, chocolate chips, oreo crumbles, and―” He shot Minhyun a look. “―sprinkles on the top, please?”

“Okay,” the cashier said. “That’ll be nine thousand five hundred total.”

“ _Jaehwan!_ ” Minhyun hissed. He looked at the sad ten thousand won note in his hand before slowly giving it to the cashier, who put it into the register without a change of face. “Why are you so expensive?”

“I pay you back every day with my lovely presence,” Jaehwan smiled, and Minhyun blanched.

“Yeah, okay.”

They got their cones and held them next to each other for comparison. Jaehwan cackled at the difference―Minhyun’s looked so small and bland beside Jaehwan’s, which was loud and falling apart just like his personality. He said so, and Minhyun laughed. “You’re not wrong,” he grinned, and then Jaehwan threatened to dump his “personality” right on Minhyun’s head.

“My cone’s like yours on steroids,” he snickered.

Minhyun rolled his eyes and Jaehwan giggled.

“So, my first act as a free man is complete!” the younger boy then declared. “Next, we’re off to the park, I’m going to climb up that one dragon statue.”

“Jaehwan, no.”

Jaehwan grinned. “Jaehwan, yes.”

Ten minutes of clever banter and an ice cream cone and a half later, they reached the base of the dauntingly tall dragon statue that lived in Jaehwan’s favorite park in Seoul. “Here, will you hold this?” the younger boy asked, not really waiting for a confirmative response before shoving his phone at Minhyun.

“Yeah, sure,” Minhyun said with an unamused look, phone already in his hand.

“Back up back up!” Jaehwan cried as he began clambering up the statue. “You gotta get the whole thing in the frame!”

The other boy stepped back far enough to show Jaehwan looking like a total dumbass, his legs thrown up on the pedestal and his arms reaching for the knee of the sitting dragon. “You know, I’m pretty sure this is illegal!” he called out to his younger friend. Jaehwan only spared him a dismissive glance before continuing his climb.

“Yeah yeah, my good  _looks_ are illegal!”

Minhyun just rolled his eyes again. The statue was near the center of the park, so there were a considerable amount of people around them. A few of them gave Minhyun and Jaehwan weird stares, but most of those who were spending their afternoons there didn’t seem to really feel like paying any attention to a teenage boy scaling the bronze dragon statue off the main path. So Minhyun just kept recording and hoped nobody he knew would walk by.

“Minhyun, I’m almost to the top!”

“I see that!”

Jaehwan pulled himself up onto the shoulders of the dragon and whooped. “Looks like all those years of gym class paid off!”

“Hwannie, you always sat out because of stomachaches.”

“Shut up!”

Gym class or not, Jaehwan finally managed to reach the head of the statue. He swung his legs over the front so they dangled in front of the dragon’s face. “Your feet are hurting his eyes!” Minhyun told him, and the younger boy quickly moved his legs so his heels weren’t digging into the dragon’s eye sockets.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Dragon,” he muttered as he patted its metal head.

“Alright, you made it up! Will you come down now?” More people had started to look up at the kid on top of the monumental statue. After being friends with Jaehwan for so many years the stares didn’t really bother Minhyun much anymore, but the fact that this probably  _was_ illegal did put him on a little bit on edge.

“Yeah, hold on!” Jaehwan cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “ _I’m freeeeeeeeeeeee!_ ”

“Oh― _Jesus_ , Jaehwan!” The boy’s shout over the whole park definitely attracted attention, and Minhyun’s head whipped around in an attempt to find any police officers who might’ve been hanging around in the general vicinity. “You won’t be free if they put your sorry ass in jail!”

“Oh shit, that’s true,” Jaehwan mumbled as he started hastily climbing down. Minhyun approached the base of the statue again, his friend’s phone still held up. Jaehwan managed to reach the pedestal before he realized the jump down would be too far. “Fuck, Minhyun―I need you to catch me.”

“What?”

“Catch me. I need you to catch me.”

Minhyun looked up at him with a very stark  _absolutely not_ already in his face. “I’m not going to catch you.”

“You have to! What are you gonna let me do, faceplant?” Minhyun hesitated, and Jaehwan squawked. “Dude! Catch me before we both get arrested!”

“Why would  _I_ get arrested?”

“You’re guilty by association. You didn’t stop me from climbing onto a public statue.”

“Fine, fine. Here, take your phone.” He reached it all the way up to hand it to Jaehwan, who gripped it tightly in his hands and pointed the camera down at Minhyun. “Okay,” he said, opening his arms. “Just hurry up, this is embarrassing.”

“Three… two… one!” Jaehwan slid off the ledge and fell onto his best friend with an overdramatic squeal. Minhyun grunted under the weight but somehow managed to keep them both upright, and the second Jaehwan got steady on his feet he pushed the younger boy off of him. “Thank you Minhyunnie! Now, off to the next thing!”

Minhyun sighed as Jaehwan started talking into his phone camera again, already leading the way to the next destination. This was going to be a long afternoon.

 

―

 

november 16, 2014 - should i keep vlogging? - 5,410 subscribers

Jaehwan held his phone up so his head and shoulders fit into the horizontal frame. He pressed record and kept walking, glancing away from the camera every now and then to make sure he wasn’t going to bump into anything or anyone.

“Hello everyone!” he said with a small wave, and a couple people passing him gave him weird looks. “So! Right now I’m walking to work, which is fun! Not really. I’d rather take the subway but I’m saving up my money, so it’s fine. And yeah, I got a job! Back in August, actually. I’m also at university now, which is really rough, but at least it’s not high school. I still consider myself a free man.”

He paused to cross the street, lowering his phone enough to check for the little silver walking guy on the light. “So, anyway,” he continued once he’d made it safely to the other side. “I was just thinking―should I keep vlogging? I like to think I’m interesting, but the truth is honestly that I don’t do a whole lot. Except like eat and sleep, I do a lot of that. This video will probably be pretty short because this is basically the whole reason I’m filming it in the first place, but yeah. Leave a comment on whether or not you’d want to watch more of my vlogs. If you know me personally, please fuck off and keep your rude comments to yourself.” He looked directly into the camera. “I’m talking to you, Daniel. I know you watch these, don’t comment shit on this video or else I’ll come steal one of your cats.”

He resumed flicking his gaze from the camera to his surroundings. “If you want me to keep posting these crack videos, I will! I do really enjoy making them and I’m all about pushing myself on other people, but what do you guys think?”

The city passed by around him, and so did a group of old people who looked at him like he was the plague of the younger generation. He was almost to his work anyway, so he’d have to end the video soon.

“Oh, I’m also going to ask some of my friends and co-workers if they’d mind being in these vlogs too―I could get the whole gang on this and it could be like some shitty reality TV show. Like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, except that show’s not shitty. Hmm… Oh! This could be called Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan.” Just saying it made him laugh. Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan. Literal gold. “Yeah, if I keep vlogging, it’s definitely going to be called Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan.”

He arrived at his work, a coffee shop that paid surprisingly well for how cheap its coffee sold. “Well I’m here, so I’m gonna end this. But please do leave a comment on whether or not you want Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan to live. And Daniel I  _swear_ if you comment, you’re never going to get to be in any of these videos. Keep your mean opinions to yourself. To everyone else, I hope I’ll see you again soon! Jaehwan out!”

He waved to his phone screen then ended the video. As he entered the coffee shop, he grinned to himself. Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan was a good one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhhhh so here we go,, the start of a monster journey! i hope you look forward to the next chapter (which should go up sometime next week)!


	2. 2015 january-february

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the video that launches jaehwan into snowballing popularity + jaehwan and minhyun move in together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i took out some tags (mainly characters and relationships) but i'll add them back when they become applicable in future chapters :)
> 
> also uhhhh please don't think too hard about the logistics of the plot of this chapter

january 5, 2015 - i take the subway - 5,503 subscribers

“Today marks the debut and first official episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan,” Jaehwan spoke to his phone with a smile. “Thank you all for the support and encouragement in the comments of my last video! So, I was thinking, what am I doing today? And I actually have to go up to the north part of Seoul, which I can’t walk to, so today I’m taking the subway.”

He paused at the front of the subway entrance to fumble around for his wallet in his back pocket. He pulled out his subway card and readjusted his phone in his hand. “Today I am taking the _Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transportation_ , or _SMRT_!” he exclaimed, his English pronunciation very choppy. “Seongwoo told me that if you put ‘ _ass_ ’ after _metropolitan_ , it becomes the _Seoul Metropolitan Ass Rapid Transportation_ and then you can call it _SMART_! But what does Seongwoo know, he’s pretty dumb.”

Keeping his arm steady, he descended the stairs to the underground. His backpack felt heavy on his back and the strap weighed down on his shoulder, but he managed to keep his arm up for the time being. Once he was in the subway he’d be able to lower his phone to stay out of the way of other passengers.

“Alright, here we go. Gotta swipe the card… Fuck.” He swiped his subway card through the reader, but the machine flashed red back at him and the gate didn’t open. Other people swept by him, all their cards working and green lights blinking. He tried again, but the reader just beeped red again. “Well, my card is being rejected. What the hell?”

Unsure what to do, Jaehwan looked around for anybody who could help him. His eyes landed on a small boxed off area at the end of the readers in which a couple people in black jackets sat. He shrugged at the phone camera before approaching the probable transit system employees. This was one of the busiest stations in all of Seoul, so it seemed likely that workers would be stationed here.  “Hello, excuse me?” he said to the box wall. He held his phone down at a low angle to appear less odd to the workers who looked at him questioningly. “Oh―Sanggyun-hyung?”

“Jaehwan!” one of the workers exclaimed, and Jaehwan laughed. He lifted his phone up to show himself and Sanggyun, who had actually been one of the people he’d talked to about vlogging. Jaehwan had no idea he worked for the transit system though. The older man had come over for dinner a few times and it was weird that his job had never come up.

Sanggyun’s co-worker looked at the pair with confusion clear in her eyes. “Jaehwan’s a friend from high school,” Sanggyun told her, and she gave him a weak smile of acknowledgement.

“I’m vlogging right now!” Jaehwan told his friend.

“Really?” Sanggyun asked, eyeing the younger man's phone warily. He may have been one of the people Jaehwan talked with, but that didn't mean he was totally down with the idea.

“Yeah, say hi!” He turned his phone so Sanggyun was fully in the frame.

The transit worker gave in. “Hello~” he said in a high-pitched voice, wiggling his brows and his fingers in a creepy wave.

Jaehwan jerked the camera back to himself. “Oh my god hyung stop you’re going to give the viewers nightmares.” He looked right into the selfie camera. “Imagine waking up, rolling over, and seeing that next to your bed.” He laughed and shivered, and Sanggyun laughed too. “Anyway, I’m actually having trouble with my subway card. The machine’s not accepting it.”

“Oh yeah sure, could I see it?”

It turned out Jaehwan’s account had just expired due to its inactivity during the last few months, so he had to renew it and pay a small fee. He turned off the recording for the rest of the process then started videoing again after waving farewell to Sanggyun and getting back in line for one of the machines. “Well, I got the problem fixed, so now it should work…” He stepped up to the reader and scanned his card. The light flashed green then the small gate opened, and he cheered. He nodded at Sanggyun in thanks once he was on the other side of the gates, and his friend smiled back.

“So, I’ll tell you a little bit about my history with metro systems while we make our way to our platform. Let’s see… the first memory I have of riding the subway was when I was six. My mom had to take me the doctor because I had the flu and she didn’t have a car so she brought me, a coughing, crying, very sick child, on the subway. It was the roomiest ride I’ve ever had. Despite my severe fever and immense pain, it was actually an enjoyable trip.”

He took a turn and tried not to get hit a group of people passing him. “Good grief, nobody here has any sense of personal space,” he muttered, then laughed at the irony of the statement. He said that like _he_ had any sense of personal space. “Anyway, that’s just my first memory. We’d usually take my dad’s car everywhere, so I didn’t ride the subway a whole lot when I was younger. I went on it when I was eleven, though, with my aunt. We were going to a new art exhibition that opened up but we got lost like eight times and we ended up in Incheon.”

He reached his platform and glanced up at the digital sign. “Three minutes until its arrival,” he said. The whole platform was crowded with people, but he managed to spot a free space on a bench. He approached the mean-looking old woman with gray hair and a sharp nose who seemed to be the reason why the spot hadn’t been taken―she glared straight at him, eyes narrowed and lips pressed tightly together. “May I sit here?” he asked, but all she did was cross her arms. Not taking her aggressive body language as a no, he smiled at her gratefully and sat beside her. She turned her head so she could glare daggers at the side of his face, but he just smiled at his phone and continued talking.

“When I was thirteen, a mother mistook me for her son and I ended up going to the house of a woman I’d never seen before. It was pretty wild when she realized that I was not in fact her son.” The woman beside him kept staring at him, but he didn’t notice. He always got way too caught up in his subway stories. “Oh yeah and one time when Minhyun and I were taking the subway to go sneak into the mall in the middle of the night, we ended up stuck in one of the cars because the engine stopped working and so we had to stay there until morning and we never got to sneak into the mall.”

A loud _ding_ rang through the speakers, followed by a fuzzy female voice saying that the train was arriving. Jaehwan stood and readjusted his backpack before lining up with everyone else to board the incoming subway. “I used to take the train all the time last summer, but I started saving up money when university started so I haven’t been riding it anymore.” He weaved his way into the car, but because he’d ended up being one of the last ones in, he got squished between a very tall man and one side of the train. The whole car was packed, and he had to hold the phone low near his stomach so his arm wouldn’t be sticking out. He tilted his head to look down at the screen and smiled at the awful image the odd angle caused. “Hey there, folks,” he murmured. Despite the insane amount of people in the car, it was silent, so his voice carried through the stifled air.

“Well, this is fun. I can’t really breathe.” He took a long, deep breath because he really honestly couldn’t breathe that well, and the action pushed his shoulders into the chest of the tall guy beside him. The man looked down at him sharply. Jaehwan felt the weight of his stare and glanced up to shoot him a quick, nervous smile. He half-bowed apologetically in his limited space but the guy just huffed and returned to staring over everyone’s heads. When Jaehwan looked back at his phone, he made an _LOL WHOOPS_ face into the camera before pulling his arms in a little tighter to his body.

“So,” he whispered, trying to attract as little attention as possible. “This is what it’s like to take a subway in Seoul. Very claustrophobic. And very hot. I think I might be sweating.” He wiggled to reach up and swipe at his forehead with the back of his hand. When it came back wet, he scrunched his face up in disgust and subtly wiped it on the slacks of the tall guy next to him.

A hoard of people got off at the next stop, and Jaehwan was able to snag a seat before the next crowd pushed into the car. He glanced down the row and saw the old lady he’d sat next to earlier. She was busy staring at the man across from her, eyes narrowed accusingly. “It’s the woman from the platform,” he whispered happily at his phone. He tilted the camera out slightly to show her, but the small movement apparently drew her attention because suddenly her head snapped towards him and she was glaring directly at his camera. With a small squeak he yanked his phone away from her and just stared at it with wide eyes until enough people came in to obscure the line of sight between them. “ _What the fuck_ ,” he mouthed.

By the time the subway lady’s voice announced the doors were closing, so many people had packed into the car that Jaehwan was stuck with some guy’s butt in his face. He sucked his lips between his teeth and maintained eye contact with his phone camera in an attempt to not make the situation more awkward than it already was.

People left and rushed in at each stop, leaving Jaehwan in a variety of uncomfortable circumstances. A couple fell into the seats beside him and they started making out until the same old lady smacked them with her purse. At another stop a baby and her mother got on, and Jaehwan made faces at the little human until she burst into tears. He diverted his gaze, horrified as the baby started screaming much to the annoyance of everyone else in the car. A group of teenage girls dressed up like anime characters rode the subway through five stops. The mean old woman kept glaring at him and he kept sneaking quick flashes of her with his camera until he finally got off at his stop. “Oh my god,” he gasped when he got pushed out onto the platform. “I can’t believe I made a baby cry!”

The waves of people leaving started to carry him towards the exit. In one of the tunnels he passed a busker and managed to toss a couple notes into her guitar case before getting swept away again. When he reached the above ground, he coughed and got out of the way of the flood of bodies dispersing in different directions. “Well,” he said. “This has been me taking the subway. It’s not that exciting but―”

He broke off when he saw the same old woman standing on the other side of the subway exit. She was still staring at him, not moving among the other hustling people, and Jaehwan stared back at her like a deer caught in headlights. “What the _fuck_ ,” he whispered, 100% sure she would hear him if he spoke any louder. He turned the camera around so it could see the mean old woman. He hadn’t even noticed her get off at the same stop―this was freaky.

“Okay, which way do I need to go?” he murmured to himself, heart beating too fast as he tried to figure out which street he needed to follow. “Oh, I think it’s a couple blocks down that way.” With one last shaky glance at the frozen old woman he turned and started speed-walking in the opposite direction.

When he deemed himself a safe distance away, he slowed down a little. “Oh my _god_ ,” he said, the camera now facing him again. “That―She’s scary. Why was she staring at me? Was she following me?” He shivered. Literally what the hell. “Okay, well, yeah. That was me taking the subway for the first time in a while. I can’t say I remember running into any mean old ladies before, so. That was interesting. Well, I’ll probably film something again soon, so goodbye for now and I’ll see you later! Jaehwan out!”

Jaehwan ended the video then and laughed the rest of the way to his destination. It was going to be fun to edit this vlog.

 

―

 

january 22, 2015 - we buy an apartment! - 43,184 subscribers

“Hello guys!” Jaehwan said into his phone camera. He’d been planning to buy a selfie stick at the least, but he hadn’t had the time or the spare money. So all he had was his freakishly long and noodly arms to get a wide enough angle for filming. “Welcome to the next episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan!”

Someone bumped into Jaehwan’s outstretched arm, and his phone nearly fell out of his hand. “Jesus!” he exclaimed. He was bundled up in a puffy jacket, a scarf, and red earmuffs to brave the January cold and the pushy Seoul natives. When he regained his balance, he cleared his throat and continued. “Thank you all _so_ much for the crazy support after my last vlog! Like thirty thousand new subscribers holy shit! Hello! All of your comments had me laughing like a seal―”

“They sure did,” a voice said, and Jaehwan sent a nasty look to his right.

“Can you not interrupt? Please? Will you let me get through a single sentence?” He panned the frame over towards the subject of his irritation. Minhyun gave the camera a quick smile before returning to paying attention to where he was walking. The older man was dressed similarly to Jaehwan, wrapped up in a winter jacket and thick clothes. “Also, thank you to the person who offered to make English captions for these videos, I really appreciate it! I know someone personally who is also helping with subbing them, so many thanks to both of you.”

He shot a sideways look at his best friend, whose head was still busy bouncing from his phone to the buildings beside them like he was watching a game of ping pong. “Now, Minhyun’s here with me because we are… Minhyun, drum roll please.”

“Uh, duh duh duh duh duh duh.”

Jaehwan scrunched his nose at his friend. “That’s literally the most half-assed drum roll I’ve ever heard.”

Minhyun rolled his eyes. “I’m a little distracted at the moment, Jaehwan. I’m actually trying to find the right address.”

“Okay okay, yes thank you.” To his camera, “You may be wondering―why is Minhyun trying to find an address? Why are we walking in the streets of Seoul? Where are we headed? Well, we have an exciting announcement! We are… buying an apartment!”

“Maybe.”

The younger boy pulled his lips back in distaste. “Okay, maybe. We’re _looking_ for an apartment to buy right now. Hopefully we’ll find a good one today. I think we’re scheduled to see what―five apartments?”

“Yeah.”

“Yep, five apartments. We’re on our way to the first one right now. Minhyun’s navigating because I’m shit at finding places. The only thing I’m good at is taking the metro, and even then that’s a little iffy.” Another person ran into him and he squawked. His best friend sighed before tugging him a little closer to his side. “So, yeah! I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m in university, and Minhyun is too. Both of us have grown up in Seoul and so we’re not living on campus. But when we graduated we decided to save up to buy an apartment―that’s why I haven’t been taking the subway unless totally necessary―and we finally have enough money to buy one! Or at least to get us started. So we’re going to look at some possible options today.”

Minhyun stopped and nudged Jaehwan to catch his attention. “We’re here.” Jaehwan tilted his head up then tilted it up some more.

“Holy shit this building’s huge!”

“Yeah,” Minhyun agreed with a frown. “Hmm, let’s go take a look.”

A doorman held the large glass doors open for them, and they bowed in thanks. When they reached the interior, Jaehwan gazed around the place with jaw dropped and eyes wide. It was _huge_. The building was squeezed between a big corporate building and a restaurant, which meant everything was just _tall_. And incredibly elegant. When Jaehwan imagined himself living in a place like this, he felt the intense urge to wash his hands and cry. “There’s no way we can afford this.”

“Uh, definitely not.” Minhyun’s just as dumbfounded expression slowly turned into a mischievous grin. “Well, what do you say we indulge a little?”

When worker from the front desk led them up to the available apartment, and the pair of best friends tried to wrap their minds around the expensiveness of everything in the space. It wasn’t even that large and it still probably costed more to rent than it’d taken to raise Jaehwan. “Dude, this is rad!” the younger boy exclaimed, holding up one of the knives he found in one of the kitchenette’s drawers.

“What the hell!” Minhyun laughed. He looked at Jaehwan then to the knife then back at Jaehwan, who was still gaping at the sheer enormity of the blade and trying to get the whole thing in his phone camera frame. “You look like an axe murderer.”

“This thing practically _is_ an axe! It’s as big as my forearm!” He swung it around a little, and Minhyun rushed over to put it back in its drawer.

“Slow down madman, you’re gonna cut your arm off.”

“Probably,” the younger boy agreed.

They left soon after, both feeling like they needed to start handing over money just for looking at the silk curtains and satin bedsheets. “Okay, where to next?” Jaehwan asked.

“Uh… just over a few blocks.”

“Let us go!” Jaehwan moved to lead the way before he remembered that Minhyun was the one with the maps app open. “Right, you go ahead.”

The next building was just as large but the individual apartments were much smaller. Thankfully the heater was on, so Jaehwan pulled his earmuffs down around his neck. A nice old woman brought them up to the fourth floor, smiling and chatting about the history of the complex and how she’d ended up as the manager of the place. When she ushered them into a cozier living room, Jaehwan immediately brightened. “This is great!” he said. He panned his phone to show the whole room.

“Which are the common walls?” Minhyun asked the landlady, and Jaehwan gave him a weird side eye.

“The what now?” he asked.

“The walls we would share with the people in the apartment next to us.”

Jaehwan’s side eye stayed firmly in place. “Why would that matter?”

“We have to know which walls we would be hearing sound through.”

Jaehwan’s expression didn’t change.

Minhyun sighed. “I don’t know, I read a Buzzfeed article about apartment hunting.”

At that, Jaehwan cackled. “You read a _Buzzfeed_ article in preparation?” he snorted.

“It’s more than you did,” Minhyun shot back defensively. The younger man sobered up a little but a few chuckles still slipped out.

“That’s true,” he conceded.

The old lady smiled at the pair. “You two are so cute,” she said, and they glanced at each other questioningly. The lady then pointed at one of the living room walls. “That wall is shared with the apartment next door, but the people who live there are really very nice. And this one…” She led them into a bedroom and gestured to the back wall. “This one is shared with the apartment on the other side, but they’re really quiet.”

Jaehwan looked around the room. It was a good size, roomy and with plenty of places to shove his stuff so he’d never have to see it again. And the bed was huge, too, which was definitely a plus.

“Is this the only bedroom?” Minhyun asked then.

“Yes,” the lady said. “Why, is that a problem?”

“We were looking for two bedrooms,” the older man said.

The lady did a double take, looking from Minhyun to Jaehwan then to Minhyun again. “You two don’t sleep in the same bed?”

Jaehwan choked. “Sorry?”

“We’re not dating,” Minhyun said, his brain working much faster than Jaehwan's to piece together all the implications the woman had made. “We’re just going to be roommates.”

“Yeah,” Jaehwan quickly agreed.

“Oh alright,” she said, but it didn’t seem like she believed them. She already moved on to the next thing, though, so Jaehwan just looked to his best friend and shrugged. Minhyun shrugged back. It wasn’t the first time people had mistaken them as boyfriends, but it _was_ the first time anyone had immediately assumed they slept together.

Overall the apartment was nice, but the single bedroom just didn’t work for them. Jaehwan tossed out the idea of just putting two beds in there, but the horrified look Minhyun gave him made him realize that there was definitely no way they would survive living in the same room. And the location of the complex also jacked the price of rent up, so affording it would be tight. The nice landlady seemed sad to see them go, and honestly Jaehwan was sad to leave her too.

The next apartment was a bit farther away, so Jaehwan tried not to freeze his ass off and filled most of the empty time with mindless chatter about this and that. He always had too much to say anyway and he knew Minhyun didn’t really mind when the older man wasn’t expected to reply.

“Okay, this is stop number three,” Minhyun announced. They were on a pretty street just outside of downtown. Minhyun beamed at the cleanliness of the street compared to others around Seoul, but Jaehwan didn’t really care.

A kid around their age showed them around the apartment up for rent. He talked _so_ _much_ , even more than Jaehwan did, and the two best friends sent each other sidelong glances every time he said something particularly weird (which was frighteningly often―they were practically staring at each other). Eventually he left the two to looking around the apartment on their own. “I feel like I can finally breathe,” Jaehwan gasped.

“He was like a tweenage kid on a sugar high,” Minhyun said, and Jaehwan snorted.

“So, this place is very nice,” the younger man said. He filmed everything as Minhyun examined the area closely. The apartment really was great―it was clean, organized, and it had two bedrooms. Its square footage was a little small, though, for being outside of the downtown area. When Jaehwan tried to imagine fitting all his shit into one of the bedrooms, all he could see was himself wading through piles of clothes and boxes.

He filmed his largely sarcastic commentary of the area before trying to find Minhyun. He ended up stumbling upon his friend in the bathroom, where the toilet was mid-flush and Minhyun was pulling the shower handle to turn the water on then off. Jaehwan watched him for a solid ten seconds before interrupting. “Buzzfeed again?” he asked, already knowing the answer. Minhyun always believed online articles too much.

The older man looked back at him sheepishly and nodded, and Jaehwan nodded to himself as well, feeling far too much like the _disappointed but not surprised_ meme.

“So, this one was better than the other ones so far, but it was a little too small. We still have two more to visit, so hopefully we’ll find the right one.”

The next apartment was definitely not the right one. They had to take the subway to get there, and the two ended up pressed so close together among all the bodies they couldn’t stop laughing. “Should I just sit on your lap?” Jaehwan whispered, and his camera caught the scandalized look of the aging man next to Minhyun.

“Probably not,” his best friend whispered back. “You’d squish me.” Jaehwan hit his shoulder in disagreement.

By the time they finally reached the apartment building they’d traveled forty-five minutes out, which meant it was too far from Seoul’s downtown and their university to be reasonable. They decided to still take a look at it though because who knew―maybe it’d be so amazing that it would make up for the location.

It was not, however, amazing at all. The exterior looked well-kept, but the second they stepped inside, it was clear the place needed severe upgrades. The wallpaper peeled to expose rotting wood and the floors dipped and Jaehwan was pretty sure he saw a mouse scurry into a hole in the wall (he screamed and the camera shook violently as he ran to hide behind Minhyun). The two were there for a total of about ten minutes before they left, bidding the landlord a good day and then promptly rushing away.

The subway ride back was spent in traumatized silence (mostly on Jaehwan’s part). He filmed a shaky review of the apartment as Minhyun sat beside him trying not to laugh. Mice were one of Jaehwan’s biggest fears, and that fear was one of the biggest sources of amusement for his best friend.

“Stop laughing at me you fucker,” Jaehwan muttered as he punched Minhyun in the arm.

“I―I’m not laughing I swear,” the older man said through a poorly-disguised chuckle.

“I hope you choke and die.”

Minhyun only laughed harder.

From the subway they walked to the final apartment, which was only about two minutes away. The location was great because it was so close to the subway station and while it was about a fifteen minutes’ drive away from the heart of Seoul, twenty from their university, and neither of them owned a car, the nearby subway made both places much easier to reach.

“Okay, so we’re at the last stop for today,” Jaehwan announced to his phone. He had it plugged into a portable charger because it would’ve died hours ago otherwise. “The outside of it looks great but we did learn from last time that looks can be deceiving.”

They pushed open the thick door and stepped into the entrance area, which wasn’t too small but was still cozy. A crackling fire in an old stone fireplace heated up the space, and the two boys instantly crowded around it. Jaehwan filmed Minhyun sticking various body parts near the fire while he cackled in the background. The whole atmosphere of the building was homey, and Jaehwan had a really good feeling about it.

A kind middle-aged woman with pitch black hair ended up interrupting them, asking them if they were there to look at the available apartment. They bowed and nodded before following her up two floors in an elevator to the place.

In short, it was perfect. There were two spacious bedrooms, a bathroom just the right size, and a living room that merged with a kitchen. Everything was up to date but didn’t feel too sterile like the first apartment they’d visited. Jaehwan claimed his bedroom immediately and started videoing where he was going to put all his stuff. Minhyun went through his Buzzfeed routine while Jaehwan just walked around _wahh_ ing the place. Everything seemed wonderful and after forty-five minutes of examining and talking prices, the two were pretty sure this was the apartment for them.

“Wow, we really hit the jackpot,” Jaehwan said.

“Mmhmm,” Minhyun agreed. The woman had left ahead to gather some forms for them to mull over. They stepped out of the apartment with smiles on their faces. “This really is great. I can definitely imagine us living here together.”

Just then a door at the end of the hall creaked open, and both men turned to look at their potential neighbors. When the person emerged from behind the door, Jaehwan gasped.

“Daniel?!”

The person, Daniel, jerked his head up at them in surprise. “Jaehwan-hyung? Oh, Minhyun-hyung, hi!”

Jaehwan beamed. “Why are you here?”

Daniel stared at him with wide eyes. He was dressed in a sweater and sweatpants, so he couldn’t be headed anywhere outside the building. “I, uh, live here.”

The brown-haired man made a small noise. “Since when?”

“Since like three weeks ago.” He frowned. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We were looking at this apartment,” Minhyun said, gesturing towards the door they’d just exited.

“Ah really!” Daniel said, his expression and tone a mix of understanding and hesitation. He squinted at Jaehwan then, or at least the phone he held up in his hand. “Are you vlogging?”

“Yes, I am,” Jaehwan replied, immediately on the defense. Minhyun put a steady hand on his arm to calm him down, but Daniel always gave him unnecessary shit for his vlogging.

The landlady saved the day, elevator doors opening to reveal her with papers in hand. “Ah, hello Daniel-ssi!” She glanced between the three of them. “Do you all know each other?”

“Yes, we all went to high school together,” Minhyun answered.

“Oh wonderful!” She seemed genuinely thrilled by the idea. “Well here, I have these forms for you both to look through. Take them home, really read through them, and then come back soon!”

“We will, thank you.” Minhyun took the papers from her with a bright smile and a bow. She gave them one last nod before leaving again, presumably to give the three men some private reunion time.

“Hey, Daniel-ah, did you―” Another man poked his head out from behind the door of Daniel’s apartment, and both Minhyun’s and Jaehwan’s brows shot into their hairlines. The man’s question broke off them he spotted them. “Minhyun! Jaehwan-ah!” he exclaimed, coming out into the hallway in fuzzy socks and a sweater almost identical to Daniel’s.

“Seongwoo?” Minhyun asked even though it was definitely Ong Seongwoo standing in the doorway of Daniel’s apartment.

“Hey guys! It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other!”

Minhyun and Jaehwan just nodded, both trying to figure out exactly why Seongwoo had come out of Daniel’s apartment.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Daniel smiled quickly at Seongwoo. “They’re looking at the open apartment on this floor.”

Seongwoo visibly brightened. “Cool! I hope you move in, this building is great and we could all hang out like we used to.”

“Uh huh,” Jaehwan said, far more preoccupied with the fact that Seongwoo was in Daniel’s apartment than the prospect of “hanging out” with them again. “Um, why are you…?”

“We’re roommates,” Daniel rushed to answer the unfinished question.

“Uh huh,” Jaehwan repeated, totally unconvinced. Seongwoo and Daniel, best friends like Jaehwan and Minhyun, had always had this weird sexual tension between them _not_ like Jaehwan and Minhyun. If they were just roommates now, there’s no way they’d last that way for long. Not when they were literally living in the same apartment.

“Well, it was nice to see you both again,” Minhyun finally said. He grabbed Jaehwan’s elbow, jolting the younger man’s phone camera, and led him downstairs before either Daniel or Seongwoo could say anything else. They bowed to the landlady one more time on the way out then heaved big sighs when they were finally back in the cold air. “So,” he said as they started walking towards the subway station under the lampposts that lined the street.

“The apartment was perfect,” Jaehwan said. “But… I don’t know if I could live so close to Seongwoo-hyung and Daniel.”

“I know,” Minhyun whined, “but that apartment was too good to let go. It was the best one we’ve seen all day―admit it, Hwannie, it was perfect. Location, space, price, everything.”

“But is it worth being literally fifteen feet down the hall from those two? Think of all the _sex_ noises we're going to have to listen to.”

Minhyun smacked Jaehwan’s arm lightly. “Jaehwan! They’re not that bad. Besides―you love both of them, what are you even talking about?”

“I love them individually but do I love them _together_ …?”

“Oh shut up, you know they’re going to be married in like two years. Besides, it’ll be nice to have neighbors we already know.”

Jaehwan surrendered. “Both of those things are very true.” He addressed his phone then, which had seen more than its fair share for the day. “Well, we’re headed back now, but I think this was _the_ apartment. So we’re going to read through the papers for it and who knows, maybe this will be the apartment we buy! Thanks for going around with us today! We’ll see you later! Jaehwan out!”

He stopped recording and let out a puff of a breath into the darkening air. Minhyun gave him a sidelong smile, and he grinned back. Soon they could be living together in a great apartment they would be paying for all by themselves―the thought just made Jaehwan smile wider.

 

―

 

february 27, 2015  - is my best friend really my best friend? (ft minhyun) - 48,192 subscribers

“Hello guys and welcome to the next episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan!” Jaehwan said into his phone camera. “I recently bought a selfie stick, so now you won’t have to be so uncomfortably close to my face!” He smiled up at his screen as if to show that being farther away was indeed the preferable distance. “So, today I am on my way with Minhyun to Ikea!” This time all he had to do was tilt the stick a little bit and his best friend was in the frame. Minhyun smiled up at Jaehwan’s phone and waved. “Wanna tell them why we’re going to Ikea?”

“We got the apartment!” Minhyun announced happily, and Jaehwan cheered.

“We finalized the deal with the apartment close to Daniel and Seongwoo-hyung! The only downside was that the previous renters took most of the furniture with them, so we’re going to buy some new things at Ikea, also known as the place where I literally always get lost!”

“You better not get lost this time,” Minhyun said. He walked beside Jaehwan on the sidewalk, paying more attention to the camera than he had in the last vlog. This time they were both very familiar with the location of their destination so he had some concentration to spare. “Last time we were in Ikea you got lost for three hours!”

“I remember that,” Jaehwan shivered. Not even his winter clothes could protect him from the coldness of that memory. “That was in what, our second year in high school?”

“Mmhmm. It was me, you, and your parents, and we were only trying to buy a new bedside table for you. But then you suddenly disappeared and it took forever to find you!”

“That was terrifying.”

Minhyun gave him a hard look. “You can’t get lost again. Here―give me your hand.” Jaehwan complied, offering out his free hand, and Minhyun entwined his fingers with his best friend’s. “Don’t let go, okay? You’re staying right by side the whole time.”

Jaehwan whined. “Your hand’s all sweaty,” he complained.

“No it’s not,” Minhyun replied. “It’s so close to freezing out here that sweat would be a miracle.”

They arrived at the massive Ikea a block later. Minhyun gripped Jaehwan’s hand a little tighter, and Jaehwan sighed.

A friendly employee only shot one weird glance at Jaehwan’s selfie stick before asking if she could help them find anything. Both men preferred to just find things on their own―it was the thrill of the adventure, Jaehwan supposed―so they politely declined before heading towards some random section with the hopes of stumbling across what they were looking for.

“Oh, look at this! Did we need a new office chair?” Jaehwan asked excitedly.

“Uh, no.”

“But look!” he broke away from Minhyun to fall into the cushy chair he’d set his eyes on. He planted his feet on the ground and experimentally pushed off. “Oh my god Minhyun! It spins!”

“Come on,” Minhyun laughed. He reached his hand out and Jaehwan took it reluctantly. What a party pooper. “Oh, here we go―kitchen tables!”

They browsed through the options carefully. Jaehwan had watched Minhyun take measurements of the space before they’d come, so he was at least vaguely aware of the size the table needed to be. That didn’t stop him from getting overly excited about every weird design he saw no matter the table’s size.

“Here, how about this one?” Minhyun asked, stopping in front of one table. It was plain and black and looked like something Jaehwan’s father would want in a kitchen.

“That’s so boring,” Jaehwan said disapprovingly. “How about that one?” He nodded over towards a light green table with curvy legs and a shiny glaze.

“That one doesn’t go with the apartment’s color scheme at all. Fine, let’s just keep looking.”

Eventually they decided on a nice brown table with a distinct wooden look, but not before Minhyun pointed out several other disgustingly plain possibilities. “You’re lucky I’m here,” Jaehwan had told Minhyun after the older man voiced his liking for an ugly square table. “Imagine if you were here alone and you ended up having to look at _that_ every morning for the rest of your life. How depressing.”

They moved on to wardrobes next because for some reason wardrobes were close to the kitchen tables. “Ooh, how about this one?” Minhyun suggested. “This one could go in your room.”

Jaehwan looked at the plain, sharp wardrobe and then at Minhyun. “Are you even my best friend? I’d rather keep my clothes in the shower than in that thing.” He pointed at a different wardrobe nearby. “Now how about _that_ one?”

“That’s so tacky!” Minhyun said, scrunching up his nose. It _was_ tacky―that’s exactly why Jaehwan had picked it out. It resembled the wardrobe from _Beauty and the Beast_ almost too closely. Just looking at it made him want to start singing. Who knew Ikea had such wacky stuff.

“Fine, you can have that nasty one and I’ll take this masterpiece,” the younger man said. Minhyun rolled his eyes but could only agree. Honestly Jaehwan wasn’t even the one who needed a wardrobe―his room had a large enough closet to fit his stuff (according to Minhyun, who should know better by now). But he couldn’t see how he was supposed to pass this opportunity up. “You know, this is why you should go into the stores instead of shopping online. You find cooler stuff.”

They spent the next two hours deciding on other items of furniture like bed frames, chairs for the living room, a table for their tiny TV, and a sleeper sofa. The biggest dispute erupted over the mirror for the bathroom―Minhyun wanted a sleek white one but Jaehwan couldn’t get away from one with a frame constructed out of wire flowers. Throughout the whole hushed argument Minhyun never let go of Jaehwan’s hand once, and eventually they agreed on a mirror they both hated, one with a oval black frame that reminded Jaehwan too much of his emo middle school years. “If I have to look at this thing every morning, I think I’ll cry,” Jaehwan said.

“Same,” Minhyun agreed, because he'd known Jaehwan in middle school too. And so that was the one they chose.

“Well, today has been pretty successful,” Jaehwan finally said into his phone camera as they exited Ikea. “We picked everything out and it’s getting delivered to the apartment soon!”

“Yayyy!” Minhyun cheered. “We made it out alive! You didn’t get lost once!”

Jaehwan grinned at his best friend. “It’s a miracle. Christmas must be here early.” To his phone, “Thank you for joining us on this episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan, I’ll see you later! Jaehwan out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so ik ikea doesn't really have any cool ass wardrobes but every time i think about jaehwan singing "be our guest" in a french accent i start laughing. also you can Bet i read a buzzfeed article on apartment hunting while writing this
> 
> (aLso get ready for new characters in the next chapter!)
> 
> please leave a comment n let me know what you think! :)


	3. 2015 april-august

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> minhyun's been working too much and worrying jaehwan to no end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the late update, i've been dealing with final exams and papers and i've also started a couple new fics so yikesyikesyikes. i hope you enjoy!

april 14, 2015 - my day at work (ft some of my co-workers) - 54,152 subscribers

“Hey guys!” Jaehwan smiled up at his selfie stick before setting it on the small bench by the front door so he could crouch down and tie his shoes. “I’m about to leave to go to my work,” he said. “It’ll take me a little while to get there but I thought I’d vlog my commute today.”

He made his way into the hallway, making sure to lock the apartment door behind him. Minhyun had blown up at him one time when he forgot after leaving for a quick trip to the noodle shop a couple streets away. Now he always checked twice that the door didn’t budge when he tried to open it.

“So, welcome to today’s episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan! I don’t know if you remember from the vlog where Minhyun and I looked at all those apartments, but the one we picked—the last one—requires use of the metro to get to downtown. I work at a coffee shop near the heart of Seoul, so we’re gonna hop on the subway real quick to get there.”

The metro station was blessfully close, so he reached it before he had time to talk about much else. He scanned himself in, card thankfully working this time, and navigated to his platform easily. This morning he’d already took the trip to the university campus for morning classes, but at this point his muscle memory took care of his commute anyway after so many trips back and forth in the past months.

Before the train arrived, he took his phone out of the selfie stick and folded the insulting thing up so he wouldn’t bash someone’s head in with it again.

For today’s vlog he just planned to show his typical day. He’d talked to his co-workers and a couple special regular customers about appearing in his vlogs, and they’d seemed excited about doing so for the most part. (Some were more excited than others, that “some” being Kenta and “others” being Guanlin.)

When the train pulled up to the platform, Jaehwan slipped in as quickly as he could. Snatching a seat was always one of his highest priorities—he did enough standing at his job, he really didn’t want to stand all the way to it as well. There were, however, too many people in the car already, so he got stuck standing near one of the doors. “Sigh,” he said into his phone camera.

The third stop was his, so he spent the time in between making weird faces and noises at his reflection in his screen. At the second stop a clown hopped on, and Jaehwan choked on a scream. It wore a red ball nose and an obnoxious red afro the size of Jaehwan’s fear—very, very, _very_ big. The creature looked more like the clown from _IT_ than the one that showed up at Minhyun’s niece’s first birthday party a couple years ago (and even with that one Minhyun had ended up spending most of the afternoon reassuring Jaehwan that the clown did _not_ know where he lived and it was _not_ going to murder him in his sleep).

The clown sandwiched itself between some sleeping businessman and a guy who likely hadn’t even seen a shower in three weeks. The guy seemed unbothered as the clown just stared ahead with its creepy painted face and deathly eyes. Jaehwan held his breath as he flipped his phone camera around and tilted it up so he caught the clown in the frame. “It’s… terrifying,” he whispered, trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible so the clown wouldn’t hear him. It could probably sense fear, though, and if that was the case then Jaehwan would be dead by the end of the day.

More relief rushed through him as he got off at the next stop than the time Seongwoo got sick the night before the talent show in their first year of high school. When the door slid closed behind him, he sighed and propped his phone on his knee as he leaned over to catch up on all the breath he’d held. “Alright, we’re good,” he said after a few moments. He stood, took a few more measured breaths, and reattached his phone to the selfie stick. “Okay, off to work!”

Within five minutes Jaehwan was stepping into the same coffee shop he’d been working at for the last eight months. An aesthetic light pink and white sign that read _Wanna Cup_ in looping letters hung on the outside glass wall and a cute-upon-first-jingle bell rung when he pulled the door open. After two-ish weeks of hearing the same tinkle every time the door swung open or closed, Jaehwan had wanted to rip his ears off. After two-ish months, he’d become immune to it, and now his brain barely even registered it.

The interior of the shop was small but not cramped. Light brown wooden tables were scattered around in front of the back counter and glass display case, several already occupied by customers talking quietly over coffee. Small handmade pastries and cookies sat proudly in the case, each one crafted every morning with love and affection by Kenta and maybe a little bit of bored detachment on Longguo’s part. Soft lights dangled above a few larger tables that lined the right wall, one of which was almost always occupied by the same two (very special) customers during the afternoon weekday hours. But when Jaehwan nudged his way inside, he found the table empty.

“Jinyoung!” Jaehwan called towards the back counter. “Where are Jihoonie and Daehwi-ah?”

“Hello to you too, hyung,” the kid behind the register grumbled. “Jihoon had to tutor some first year girl and Daehwi had to meet for his singing club.”

“Aw, boo.” Jaehwan flipped the camera and zoomed in on the table dejectedly to emphasize his disappointment. “I thought the singing club met on Thursdays. I miss my favorite dongsaeng, Daehwi-ah come back~!”

Jinyoung gasped. “Ouch! And they had to reschedule this week, I don’t know. Now hurry up and get back here hyung!”

“I swear,” Jaehwan mumbled, his mood sour as he made his way to the back. “He calls me hyung but he doesn’t show me any actual respect.” He slipped behind the counter anyway and pulled on the apron that Jinyoung tossed at his chest after setting the selfie stick on top of the display case.

“You’ll never believe what I saw on the metro,” Jaehwan said once he had his apron tied securely around his waist. Jinyoung pursed his lips, and Jaehwan could tell he wasn’t expecting much. “There was a _clown_ , like one of those scary ass clowns that kidnap children and cut you up with a chainsaw in the middle of the night.”

Jinyoung sighed. “You’re such a baby, hyung,” he said.

“Hey! It was horrifying!”

Jinyoung scrunched up his nose. “I’m sure it was, I hope you’ll be able to sleep tonight. Hey hyung, how come I only just got out of school and I still got here before you did?”

Jaehwan sniffed at the quick dismissal of the scary clown. “I have school too,” he said, picking up the selfie stick again and holding it high so his full attire was in view. The light pink apron really complemented his skin tone, he thought. Underneath he wore the uniform beige pants and white long-sleeve shirt, both of which were awful because he would never voluntarily own beige pants or white long-sleeve shirts.

“Yeah, in the morning!”

Jaehwan pouted. “Still counts.” He shuffled over towards Jinyoung. “Here, get in the picture with me so I can officially introduce you.” Jinyoung complied, persona flipping the second he was in the frame. He kept making cute expressions with his frustratingly small face, and Jaehwan thought the kid felt himself maybe a little _too_ much. “This is Jinyoungie, we work the same shift every weekday except on Fridays. Jinyoungie leaves me alone to wallow in loneliness and pain on Fridays.”

“I _do_ things on my Friday nights, hyung.”

Jaehwan gasped, totally scandalized. “What _is_ it with you today? You’ve really been spending too much time with Minhyun, he’s such a bad influence. Are you only dragging me through the mud because I’m vlogging? Is that why?”

“I’m not dragging you through anything, hyung, I’m just telling the truth.”

“Where’s Guanlinnie?” Jaehwan demanded, desperate for an escape.

Jinyoung laughed. “He went to check on hyungs in the back. They should have a new bunch of cookies coming out for the afternoon rush.”

“I’ll go back and say hello,” he muttered before turning on his heels and heading for the back door. He shouldered his way into the baking kitchen whose back half doubled as the storage space for the inventory. The two head bakers, Kenta and Longguo, practically ran the whole shop with the front staff as their wingmen. The shop’s owner wasn’t too involved with the shop itself and only really served the purpose of providing paychecks and schedules.

Jaehwan found the two bakers kneading dough and mixing batter for what Jaehwan assumed would be a fresh batch of brownies. “Kenta-hyung! Longguo! And Guanlinnie!” The younger boy was leaning against the industrial table.

“Ah, Jaehwan-ah!” Kenta smiled as Jaehwan came into view. He beamed at the selfie stick the younger man held up. “You’re vlogging!”

“Yes yes, here, introduce yourself.”

Kenta told the camera a little bit about himself while still kneading the pastry dough. When Jaehwan turned his phone to Longguo, the man just ran his tongue behind his teeth like he’d tasted something bad and kept moving the wooden spoon round and round in the batter.

“It’s too early for this,” he said.

Beside him, Guanlin snorted. “Ge, it’s three in the afternoon.”

Longguo sniffed. “And your point?”

Jinyoung called back then, summoning Jaehwan and Guanlin back out to the front. “It’s begun!”

The three-o’clock rush of high schoolers began around half past three, after they’d all done their hanging out on campus a bit longer and then decided to go get coffee. Jinyoung manned the cash register and Jaehwan set up his phone near an outlet to capture all the behind-the-scenes work he and Guanlin executed. They were an efficient team, the three of them. They had orders out as quickly as they were coming in, and both baristas murmured things to Jaehwan’s phone as they worked. Kenta and Longguo sent out fresh batches of cookies and brownies, and Jinyoung managed to work a lot more smoothly without Daehwi sitting at the table beside the left wall. He told the camera this, and Guanlin laughed when he heard it.

“Like you’re allowed to find that funny,” Jaehwan said pointedly. “You’re working better without _Jihoonie_ here too.”

“Don’t say his name!” Guanlin whisper shouted, frantically crowding Jaehwan into the counter so neither Jinyoung or any of the other high schoolers would hear.

Jaehwan rolled his eyes. “Pfft, like you’re not obvious about it anyway.”

“Isn’t it four thirty?” Guanlin asked with his brows raised. The comment was totally off topic and very obviously a diversion tactic, but it worked. Jaehwan yelped and Guanlin laughed again.

Minhyun’s lunch shift at a nearby “authentic Korean” restaurant ended at four thirty, and he always came to Wanna Cup afterwards. The restaurant appealed mostly to tourists who were visiting Seoul, but as a native Seoulite Jaehwan thought the food was pretty great too. Minhyun got an employee discount so they usually ate there on their days off if Minhyun wasn’t working.

The building was only a couple blocks away and Minhyun was a fast walker anyway (he always left Jaehwan in the dust if there weren’t many other people around―the younger man lamented that his best friend would never experience the beauty of a nice peaceful stroll), so he usually arrived at Wanna Cup around four thirty seven.

And at four thirty seven, Jaehwan always had a large coffee, a bagel with extra strawberry cream cheese, and a fresh chocolate chip cookie ready for him when he walked in. Seven minutes usually provided plenty of time to prepare all that, but Jaehwan didn’t like cutting it close. Not for Minhyun, anyway.

The bell signalled the entrance of a new customer, and Jaehwan slid the coffee, cookie, and bagel onto the counter. “Hey Minhyun!”

Minhyun just gave him a tired smile. He was dressed in his waiter uniform, black pants hugging his legs maybe a little too nicely and top two buttons undone on his black shirt. Jaehwan tried to smile genuinely back.

“Eat up,” he said, pushing what he’d prepared closer to his best friend.

Minhyun took a seat close to the counter. Usually Jaehwan included him in all his dumb conversations with Jinyoung and Guanlin and sometimes Minhyun would even berate them for getting on Longguo’s nerves whenever the baker emerged from the kitchen to supply freshly baked sweets.

But today there was no banter, no scolding, no nothing. Jaehwan knew Minhyun was stressed and he did whatever he could to help―he’d just put some extra sugar in his coffee in the hopes that it’d lift up his best friend’s spirit a little. But Minhyun had always just been a stubborn person who liked to do everything on his own. Jaehwan could only wait it out and be there the best he could.

The older man just sat there and ate, sipping his coffee in between bites. Jinyoung and Guanlin frowned at him too. They’d known Minhyun for months now, and they knew he wasn’t normally like this. Jinyoung sent Jaehwan a sympathetic glance because they were long past questioning at this point.

“Hey,” Minhyun said twenty minutes later, appearing at the counter again. “I’m heading back.”

Jaehwan blinked, thinking he must’ve missed something. Had Minhyun said something earlier about working longer that he just hadn’t remembered? Usually his best friend told him ahead of time if he planned to go somewhere after stopping by. But when the younger man came up with nothing, he asked, “Are you working another shift at the restaurant tonight?”

“Yeah, I am,” Minhyun answered. “Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, they only told me this morning that they needed another waiter for dinner.”

“I thought we were going to marathon the Avatar series tonight.”

Minhyun looked like he’d stepped on something incredibly sharp. “I know, I’m sorry.”

Jaehwan just nodded and pretended that his heart wasn’t being squished between two bricks at the fact that his best friend was cancelling their mid-weekly marathon night on him. He could feel Jinyoung’s and Guanlin’s eyes watching his back, so he just forced a grin. “Sure. No problem.”

“I am sorry,” Minhyun said. When Jaehwan didn’t offer anything else, he let his hand fall on the counter before he turned away. He made it halfway to the door when he paused. “Hey, Hwannie?”

Jaehwan glanced over.

“Thanks for the extra sugar.”

He smiled weakly.

“Why’s he still working so hard?” Jinyoung asked once Minhyun had left.

“I don’t know.”

Guanlin sidled up on the other side of them. “Hopefully he’ll get some sleep.”

“Yeah,” Jaehwan said, chewing at the inside of his cheek. Then he remembered his phone leaning on the counter and turned to see the little red stop button―it was still recording. Ah, he’d have to edit this last bit out later. Angsty early-adult problems didn’t really appeal to the general public.

After Minhyun left, the evening carried on uneventfully except the one time Guanlin broke the cappuccino machine and doused himself in murky water. “Damn it!” he’d cursed, and Jinyoung and Jaehwan had just bursted into giggles.

“Alright, well,” Jaehwan said up at his phone camera as he closed the front door behind him three hours later. “That was my long ass Tuesday shift. Unfortunately Jihoonie and Daehwi-ah weren’t here, but I’m sure you’ll get to meet them some other time. They really are here nearly every day, it’s just a bad coincidence they weren’t today.”

He stopped as he passed Minhyun’s restaurant. Through the window he could see his best friend smiling at a table of what looked like foreign businessmen. To any stranger his smile would look genuine, but Jaehwan knew his smiles well enough to know he was exhausted. Smiling hurt after a while.

Minhyun disappeared into the back to place the order, and Jaehwan sighed. Then he kept walking, smiling up at his phone. It only increased Minhyun’s stress when he hovered. “So, yeah, that was my day at work! I hope to see you all again soon, Jaehwan out!”

He folded the selfie stick, tucked his phone in his back pocket, and hoped Minhyun would get home soon.

 

―

 

june 20, 2015 - i sleep until 2 pm and then do nothing - 65,004 subscribers

Jaehwan woke up to the sound of drilling. Confused, he cracked his eyes open and blearily looked around his room to make sure the drilling wasn’t coming from anywhere within fifteen feet of himself. It’d been almost six months in their new apartment and not once had a stuttering drill rudely disturbed him from his beauty sleep, so this was an odd occasion. After deeming himself safe due to the absence of a murderer with a power drill in the general vicinity, he leaned over and fumbled his phone off his bedside table. The drilling sound stopped abruptly, but he just tried to focus on unlocking his phone. Eventually he managed to find the camera app and get a video recording.

“Good morning,” he said sleepily. He _knew_ his hair looked like a literal haystack―he could feel it extending off his head at weird angles. But more people had seen him in worse states of disarray, so what did he care? “So, welcome to the next episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan. It’s two in the afternoon―”

The drilling sound started back up, effectively cutting him off. It was so _loud_. He groaned and squinted at his window. When silence finally returned, he continued. “It’s two in the afternoon and I just woke up like three minutes ago. That demonic drilling is the reason my eyes are currently open, and I have no idea where it’s coming from. So we’re going to investigate. Come come,” he beckoned his phone over to his window. All he could see was the usual neighboring buildings, the people walking on the sidewalks below, the Seoul skyline stretching up in the distance. Though breath-taking, the view didn’t reveal to him the origin of the drilling.

“Okay, nothing here, moving on.”

He stumbled out of his room and into the small hallway that connected to Minhyun’s bedroom and the living room. Minhyun’s door was shut, but Jaehwan knew the older man wasn’t behind it―today was a Saturday, but Minhyun never seemed to get a day off lately. He’d been working nearly every second he wasn’t in the summer classes he’d insisted on taking, and it filled Jaehwan with worry. His best friend had always been a workaholic, never sparing enough time to just give himself a break, and recently it’d been getting to the point where Jaehwan was leaving meals out on their kitchen table for Minhyun to eat whenever he happened to rush by. They barely even saw each other anymore―usually they only crossed paths when Jaehwan had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and Minhyun arrived home after full shifts at work or night classes.

When Jaehwan reached the kitchen, guilt poured through him at the sight of a scribbled note on the counter. He had no doubt his phone camera caught his uncomfortable expression, but he’d just edit this bit out later with the new fancy software Seongwoo had helped him download onto his laptop last week.

 _Hey Hwannie, I’ll be out until later tonight, sorry!_ Minhyun’s neat but hurried handwriting said. Jaehwan’s heart clenched in reply.

The drilling noise started back up, jerking his attention away from the note. “Alright now where the fuck…” He padded over to the living room window, and he finally found the culprit for the disruption. “There it is!” he cried, focusing his phone’s camera down on the sidewalk below. It was difficult to get the sharp angle, but he managed to capture the group of construction workers drilling a fucking jackhammer into the concrete below. Jaehwan made a face. Why did they have to do this on a Saturday when most people were home and trying to catch up on sleep? And when Jaehwan still felt like he was recovering from the hell of finals week?

“I can’t believe this,” he mumbled. Right at that moment a knock echoed in from his front door. For a fleeting moment his heart hoped that it would be Minhyun―he hoped his best friend would stumble in through the door and go sleep for the next three days to make up for all the nights he’d missed. But the hope died when he remembered Minhyun, of course, had a key to the apartment and that he was too responsible to lose it.

“Coming!” he called, trying not to jerk his phone around too much as he bumbled over to the door. When he opened it, he came face to face with a familiar, disheveled man who looked just as tired as he felt. “Jisung-hyung?”

“Jaehwannie,” the man, Jisung, whined. “Why is some man drilling into the side of the building so early in the morning?”

Jaehwan squinted at Jisung. “Hyung, it’s like two thirty in the afternoon.”

The older man paused to reconsider his words before just whining again. “But it’s my day off…”

“I know, I know, mine too,” Jaehwan said comfortingly. “Just play some really loud music and try to go back to sleep.”

Jisung nodded slowly before his gaze happened to fall on Jaehwan’s phone, which the younger man had been holding low so as to not attract attention. “What are you doing?” he inquired.

“Oh,” Jaehwan said, glancing down at his phone. “I’m vlogging.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, here you wanna―” He lifted it up so Jisung would be in the frame, but the older man squawked as he tried to dodge the camera.

“No! I don’t wanna!” he squeaked. “I look like a bird that just fell out of a really tall tree!”

Jaehwan laughed. “C’mon, hyungieee!”

“Absolutely not! Kim Jaehwan, you keep that thing away from me until I brush my hair at least!”

Jaehwan only laughed again, finding Jisung’s impressive maneuvers to keep himself out of the camera’s range extremely amusing. “Okay, okay. Just go try to sleep some more, you deserve a good rest.” He flipped the camera so it faced himself again and waved goodbye to his neighbor, who retreated back to his own apartment with an answering but far less enthusiastic wave.

The door shut behind Jaehwan with a click. “Well, that was Yoon Jisung. He lives in the other apartment right next door, not the one Daniel and Seongwoo-hyung share. He seemed really interested when I brought up my vlogging to him the first time. Just doesn’t like being on camera when he doesn’t look his best I guess.” The drilling cut him off again, and he sighed. That really _was_ annoying. Maybe it was best Minhyun wasn’t here right now because there’s no way he’d be able to sleep peacefully if he was.

When the drilling took a quick break, Jaehwan continued. “Jisung-hyung also works at the hair salon I go to, so he always has the best hair care products and for discounted too. The guy’s all around just kind of the best person.”

He found himself standing in the middle of the kitchen again, and he finally noticed how hungry he was when he saw a box of cereal sitting on the counter and felt his stomach rumble at the sight. “So… breakfast would probably be a good idea.” The backsplash behind the stove lended itself as a support for his phone to lean on as it provided the best angle for the camera. Almost the whole (grantedly small) kitchen fit into the frame. “I think I’m just going to go with toast today. Toast is always the best option.”

He ran his mirror image through the Jaehwan Certified Way (aka the best way) to make peanut butter and jelly toast while being repeatedly interrupted by the dumb drilling. He made three slices, and as he was spreading creamy peanut butter over the third one, he remembered all the times he’d made three more slices for Minhyun to eat before he left for work or classes. That was back when they’d first moved in, though, back when Minhyun wasn’t gone all the time and adult responsibilities hadn’t quite caught up to them yet.

“Voila!” he proclaimed, showing off his perfectly constructed toast set to his phone. “This right here is what you want. And this isn’t product placement or anything, but if you want the tastiest toast, this is how you do it.”

Sometime near the end of breakfast/lunch, the drilling finally stopped for more than three minutes. He went to the window to check after an abnormally long absence of the noise only to see the offending jackhammer being placed back into the back of a construction truck.

“Yay!” he cheered. “Bye bye you nasty thing!” Happily, he settled onto the couch to watch the newest episode of his current favorite drama. If Jaehwan’s being totally honest, it wasn’t even that good, but he was so emotionally invested it was too late to back out now. His phone storage quit about halfway through the episode, so he finished it then downloaded the video onto his laptop. Then he set his phone up on some pillows so he could film the process of him editing the video.

“You’re watching me edit a video that this video will be added to, how weird is that? That’s like some breaking-the-fourth-wall shit or something.”

Nothing he was doing even got within ten feet of the word productive. He just had nothing else to really do, because the coffee shop hadn’t called him in for work today and his summer projects for his classes weren’t a priority because Procrastination was his middle name.

Finally he finished up editing what he’d recorded earlier, filming all his blunders with the new software and a lot of him laughing at himself as he did so. “Now I have to add this video and edit that in,” he said. “So, bye I guess? This is weird, you’re going to be seeing this but it’s not even in the vlog yet. Wild. Well, Jaehwan out!”

When he finished editing the whole vlog, he posted it and then fell asleep curled up in blankets where Minhyun found him five hours later.

 

―

 

august 9, 2015 - i trap minhyun in his room & play just dance - 69,101 subscribers

“Hey guys!” Jaehwan exclaimed at his phone, excitement boiling over into his voice. “Welcome to today’s episode of Keeping Up With Kim Jaehwan, or _KUWKJ_ as some of you have nicknamed it. Yesterday Minhyun’s sister dropped off an old Wii and her copy of Just Dance 2015 so I thought I’d film myself playing that for the first time―I’ve played Just Dance 4, but not the 2015 edition yet. I absolutely _suck_ at dancing so this is going to be funny as hell. Daniel came over to help me set the whole Wii up this morning… now let’s see…”

He leaned his phone against a Charmander mug on top of the TV so the camera could get a full view of the living room. “I’m gonna try to find a way to put the TV screen in the corner… I have no idea how to do it but Daniel and Seongwoo-hyung are really good with technology and I’ll get one of them to help me,” he told it.

Satisfied, he went to fall back but then turned back around when he remembered something. “Oh―also! Minhyun is finally sleeping in his room so I’m going to try to be quiet and the volume is gonna be low on this too.”

His excitement only grew as he booted up the Just Dance game and the intro music started wafting out of the speakers. He sifted through options, sharing his strong opinions about all the songs (“ _Bang Bang_ oh my god! A song by queens, honestly! They better play this at my funeral or else I’m gonna have some serious haunting to do”). But all his elation died when he heard the creak of a door and spotted a fully dressed Minhyun emerging from his bedroom down the hall.

“Minhyun?” he asked, brows raised in a demand for an answer as to why the _fuck_ the older man was not asleep. Or at least in pajamas.

“Hey Jaehwan,” Minhyun blinked at his best friend. The dark circles under his eyes were enough to worry anyone, and lately Jaehwan had become a feeding ground for the stressful feeling.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” the younger man followed up, because apparently the confusion wasn’t clear in his voice.

Minhyun paused to take in Jaehwan’s situation, eyes moving from his rolled up sweatpants and ridiculous sweatband around his forehead to the screen of the television.  “You’re playing the new Just Dance game?”

“Yeah,” Jaehwan said with a frown. He’d forgotten about the game the second his best friend enter the living room looking like a well-dressed zombie. “Where are you going?”

Minhyun killed Jaehwan’s good mood with one word. “Work,” he said.

And Jaehwan lost it.

“Why the _hell_ are you going to work right now?” he demanded, dropping the Wii remote (he didn’t put the strap around his wrist in an act of childish rebellion) so he could move to grip Minhyun’s arms. The older man regarded him warily but offered no answer. “Did they ask you to come in?”

Minhyun fell into the trap―he nodded minisculely.

“Bullshit,” Jaehwan replied. He’d gone to the restaurant a month ago to ask them why Minhyun was working so many shifts, and they told him he’d asked to. Even though he was clocking in ridiculous hours, the head manager said he was the best waiter they’d ever hired and it would be ludicrous to deny him any shift he wanted. Jaehwan thought it was ludicrous they were letting him work practically work his life away there.

“Minhyun,” he said, this time softer. His best friend looked so tired that Jaehwan didn’t think he’d be able to handle the younger man shouting at him. “What’s going on? You’ve been working too much for the last five months.”

“Just let me go, I’m going to be late.”

Minhyun tried to push past him, but Jaehwan wouldn’t have any of it. “No, stop, listen to me.” He extended his arms so his friend couldn’t get by him. “This has been going on for too long. You have to talk to me, I’m too worried about you.”

Maybe it was something in his voice, or in his eyes as he didn’t look away from Minhyun’s face. “We need money,” Minhyun said, and Jaehwan’s expression marred. Money? That’s all this was about?

“I don’t―”

“I know you don’t, Jaehwan.” Minhyun sighed, ran his fingers through his hair. Jaehwan could sense the anger bubbling up inside of the older man, and it put him on edge. He didn’t want to have to be on the defense in this argument. “You’re still just a teenager―”

“Hey!”

“Okay, you’re twenty, but I don’t expect you to understand―”

Jaehwan cut him off with a glare. “Explain it to me then.”

Minhyun just sighed again. “We’re college students, Jaehwan. We got an apartment in the middle of our first year. That’s a lot of responsibility, and we’re each only working so much―there’s rent we have to pay along with plenty of other things. There’s so many things we have to keep track of.”

“That’s still not a reason―”

“What if something happens to one of us? What if one of us gets hurt―what if _you_ get hurt, Jaehwan? We have to be able to pay for hospital bills or medicine and what if I lose my scholarship? What if I have to pay for my full tuition? What if our rent goes up? What if some kind of emergency happens―”

“Hyunnie,” Jaehwan interrupted, putting his hands back on Minhyun’s arms. The older man breathed heavily, and while he made it seem like he was just worried about money, Jaehwan could see through it. Minhyun’s worries came from his constant need to have everything under control―being out in the real world had picked that insecurity raw. Nothing out there was controllable, and Jaehwan understood that. They were just doing their best, but maybe they’d moved out a little too soon. Because even if Jaehwan was the “teenager” here, Minhyun clearly didn’t have a grip on being away from home. And that was totally fine, but he needed to communicate with his best friend so the poor guy didn’t feel so helpless.

“Hyunnie,” he said again. “Those are a lot of ‘what if’s. And the answer to most of them is that we’ll go into debt, and that’s okay. Hey, don’t look at me like that, debt is good for credit scores as long as you pay it off. Which, if you just work normal hours, we will still be able to do.”

Minhyun’s shoulders started slumping, indicating the deflation of his anger, so Jaehwan continued with his palms flat on Minhyun’s shoulders. “You need sleep as much as you need money. Which is why you’re going to go back in there and sleep.”

“Wait wha―”

But Jaehwan was already pushing him back down the hall and towards his bedroom. “Get changed and go to sleep!”

“Jaehwan I can’t―”

“Minhyun. You’ve missed probably three week’s worth of sleep, so go in there and please sleep. It is a Sunday, they will survive without you.”

With that, he nudged the older man back into his bedroom and waited in the threshold for him to pick up his pajamas and sigh. When he shut the door reluctantly, Jaehwan dashed back to the living room to turn off the preview music of _Love Is All_ by the Sunlight Shakers that had been looping in the background. He snatched his phone off the top of the television and hurried back into the hallway. “You all have been really worried about Minhyun in the comments, and I really appreciate all the love you’re sending him. He just walked out of his room ready to go to work, so I’ve forced him back into his pajamas.”

Minhyun opened his door to reveal his new outfit of flannel pants and the white t-shirt stained with paint from the time they’d repainted Jaehwan’s parents’ house a couple months ago, and Jaehwan smiled at him before the door shut again. “And he’s going to catch up on sleep. But if I know my best friend, I know that he will try to go to work anyway, so I’m going to make sure he stays in his room and actually freaking sleeps.”

Just as he finished talking, Minhyun pushed his door open slightly and peeked his head out into the hall. “Jaehwan, they still think I’m coming in, I have to go.”

“No. No you don’t. I’ll call Dongho-ssi and tell them you’re sick and you can’t come in.”

“I’m not sick though!”

“You will be if you don’t sleep, Minhyun, please.”

Minhyun sighed and slinked back into his bedroom.

“Well, this episode just went from Jaehwan plays Just Dance to Jaehwan keeps his dead-tired best friend in his room so he will finally catch up on sleep.” When Minhyun knocked on the back of the door, Jaehwan said, “I’m calling him right now!”

He ended the video and dialed Kang Dongho, the assistant manager at the restaurant and the only one in the whole restaurant that had seem slightly concerned by Minhyun’s hours too. They’d exchanged numbers when Jaehwan stormed in there several weeks ago. “Hello, Kang Dongho-ssi? This is Kim Jaehwan, Hwang Minhyun’s best friend and roommate.”

“Oh, yes, Jaehwan-ssi, hello. Is Minhyun alright?”

Jaehwan banged his elbow into the door when he ended the call two minutes later, Dongho totally understanding of the situation and wishing Minhyun a well day of rest. “Did you hear that?”

A pause. “Yes.”

“Good. Please sleep.”

Jaehwan leaned his back against the door and started up a new video before sliding down to the floor. The phone captured his suffering as he listened to Minhyun rustle around behind him. The older man needed to sleep before he’d be able to properly discuss his control-issue with Jaehwan, but he wasn’t going to sleep until Jaehwan made him.

“Jaehwan?” came a small voice from behind the door.

“Yes?”

“I can’t sleep when I know I should be at work.”

Jaehwan sighed. “Minhyun, I’ll ask for more hours at the coffee shop so you don’t have to work as much, okay? And I’ll pick up another job if that doesn’t work out.”

“No, you don’t have to―”

“Yes I do. I’ll ask for the hours right now, please sleep.”

There came another resignated sigh from the other side of the door. Jaehwan pressed his ear to the obstructive thing to get a better idea of what Minhyun was doing inside. A shuffle, another sigh, and then the sound of bedsheets being pushed back. “I think he’s finally getting in bed!” Jaehwan whispered excitedly at his phone, his mirror image looking back at him happily. After a few more minutes of rustling the noise stopped, and so the younger man waited another few seconds before standing and creaking the door barely open.

He couldn’t stop the smile that spread over his face at the sight of Minhyun _finally_ sleeping, the man curled up under his big comforter despite the fact that it was sweating weather just outside his window. His mouth hung open slightly, face smushed against his pillow. “Thank _god_ ,” he whispered. They could talk about everything in the morning. “Now we’re going to write a few emails and hunt for a couple job options and then I’m going to play that goddamn Just Dance game.”

Two hours later, Jaehwan flopped down on the couch with sweat dripping from his face and clinging to his totally useless sweatband. He’d emailed his Wanna Cup supervisor (the owner) to ask for more shifts then played Just Dance until his legs felt like they were about to fall off (so… like forty-five minutes). Minhyun had slept through everything, even the time Jaehwan banged his heel into the couch during one particularly kick-y choreography and screamed. Usually Jaehwan was the heavy-sleeper between the two of them, but he guessed months of barely any rest could really change a person’s sleeping habits.

“Well, I’m exhausted,” Jaehwan said with a sigh. “I think this has been a wake-up call―I really should get into better shape.” He laughed, sitting up. “Well, either way, thanks for joining me today. I hope you all have a fabulous day or night or whenever and I’ll see you later! Jaehwan out!”

After ending the video he checked on Minhyun again, and he was pleased to see his best friend still balled up under his blankets like a corpse. There was a small smile on the sleeping man’s face, though, and Jaehwan wondered what he was dreaming about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really did do my just dance research for this chapter wow go me
> 
> n feel free to drop a comment n lemme know what you think :)


	4. update from author

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> just a real quick update

Hello everyone, I'm sorry not to be updating with a new chapter but I just wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned this fic--I'm just trying to find my inspiration for it again. I've gotten sidetracked on a lot of my other in-progress fics and haven't been able to devote enough time for this one. Sorry for the wait :(

Hopefully the next update will be relatively soon, and hopefully it will be a new chapter!


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